An overview of UK practice to date - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 220

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An overview of UK practice to date
8.1 Introduction
Part 3 considers EIA practice: what is done rather than what should be done. Chapter 8
provides an overview of the first 15 years or so of UK practice since EC Directive 85/
337 became operational. We develop this further with reference to particular case studies
in Chapter 9. The case studies seek to develop particular themes and aspects of the EIA
process raised in this and in earlier chapters, for example, on the treatment of alternatives,
of public participation and on the effect of divided consent procedures. The case studies
are largely UK-based, and project-focused, although a case of SEA is also included.
Chapter 10 discusses international practice in terms of “best practice” systems, emerging
EIA systems and the role of international funding agencies in EIA, such as the World
Bank.
These chapters can be set in the context of the important international study on EIA
effectiveness, a major three-year study, whose results have been written up by Sadler
(1996). Sadler suggests that EIA effectiveness can be tested at different stages in a cycle
of EIA systems: (1) whether a given EIA policy is effectively translated into practice
through the application of relevant processes and procedures, (2) whether the practice
results in effective EIA performance through contributions to decision-making and (3)
whether this performance then effectively feeds back into changes in the EIA policy by
examining whether EIA realizes its purpose.
Sadler also notes that these questions and the attendant techniques for investigating
them must be seen in the context of the decision-making framework in which the relevant
EIA system operates. As was discussed in previous chapters, EIA in the UK can broadly
be described as having been
• imposed on a reluctant government by the EC;
• implemented since then relatively punctually and thoroughly;
• based on a strong pre-existing planning system, but with inelegant “patching” where
Directive 85/337 has required EIA for projects covered by other authorization
systems, and where regulations have since been amended;
• often implemented through negotiations rather than through direct confrontations
between the relevant interest groups, with the attendant weakening of many decisions
but also relatively good implementation; and
• focused on qualitative rather than quantitative techniques, eschewing high-tech methods
and leading to short, quite readable EISs.
Chapter 8 broadly addresses Sadler's first two points in sequence. Section 8.2 considers
the number, type and location of projects for which EIAs have been carried out in the UK